This invention relates to network switching.
Telecommunications networks transfer audio, video, and other data by routing data from a source to a destination through a number of network switches. A conventional network switch includes a backplane with a number of expansion slots for receiving port blades and one or more switch fabric blades. Each port blade includes one or more media ports through which data is received and transmitted. The switch fabric blade(s) provides a high-speed switching mechanism to route data correctly between the port blades.